Boeing creates "flying machine" called a "Blimp."

May 3, 2002 9:50 AM

Boeing creates "flying machine" called a "Blimp." They say it will be used for homeland defense. Ha. I doubt they can get it off the ground. Blimp - what hogwash, indeed.
posted by password (11 comments total)

That's what they said about cold fusion, too!

Oh wait, that was hogwash. ;)
posted by Foosnark at 10:03 AM on May 3, 2002

Balderdash, says I! And poppycock as well! Flying contraptions - who ever heard of such a thing?
posted by solistrato at 10:19 AM on May 3, 2002

It is not a balloon. It is an airship! Balloons is for kiddy-winkies.
posted by gazingus at 10:22 AM on May 3, 2002

Oh, the humanity!
posted by briank at 10:22 AM on May 3, 2002

"what should we call this thing?"
[flips side of airship with finger] *blimp*
"hey, we'll just call it a 'blimp'!"
posted by tomplus2 at 11:13 AM on May 3, 2002

This idea has been afloat for quite some time. A group of dreamers was chronicled in John McPhee's The Deltoid Pumpkin Seed.
posted by mrhappy at 11:54 AM on May 3, 2002

The CargoLifter's been in development for several years, but recently went into commercial production. Lots of cool pictures at their site.

There's also the Zeppelin NT (and unlike the other guys, they admit that it means "New Technology").

By the way, we're already using tethered balloons for border-monitoring radar, called "aerostats".

And the Israeli Defense Force uses balloons for cameras, as in the Bethlehem siege.

And there's been a lot of interest lately in "battle blimp" applications -- although some of those uses can be beaten into plowshares, as in a UN test that successfully detected land mines using an airship-based radar.
posted by dhartung at 4:22 PM on May 3, 2002

There's also this idea of using blimps in lieu of cell-phone towers. The article is from last summer, but I can't find anything newer.
posted by diddlegnome at 5:32 PM on May 3, 2002

Blimps are way too noisy to be used for very long, at least in cities.
posted by clevershark at 9:12 PM on May 3, 2002

But they're great for those Off Planet Emigration PSAs.
posted by y2karl at 9:50 PM on May 3, 2002

Blimps are way too noisy to be used for very long, at least in cities.

I recall a PBS doucmentary about blimps that showed one being used by police over Paris. They were using it as an observation platform during some big sporting event or global summit. It was supposed to be cheaper and quiter than a helicopter and the citizenry seemed rather taken with their little dirigible.
posted by piskycritters at 2:05 PM on May 4, 2002